By Wendy Anders

You may want to take a trip to the gas station today or tomorrow.

An increase in gas prices recently approved by the Public Services Regulatory Agency (Aresep) will take effect later this week.  It more than doubles the decrease that went into effect this past March.

In the past such hikes have caused long lines at stations as people stock up to save a little before prices go up.

Super will take the biggest rise, increasing 84 colones from its current 518 to 602/liter. Plus gasoline will go up 77 colones, from 498/liter to 575; and diesel will go up by 71 colones from 380 to 451/liter.

Rubén Vargas, president of the Costa Rican Taxi Union, which represents more than 14,000 taxi drivers throughout the country, said in a phone interview that, “This is an assault by the government on Costa Rican’s wallets. Not only for us in transportation, but for the whole population. It’s a bad move by the government to approve such a huge increase. When crude prices drop, they take a long time approving a decrease in prices, but when crude oil goes up, there’s always a big increase. They always come out winning.”

Tomorrow at 6pm, Vargas said his group will meet with Frente Amplio political party members to discuss a legislative proposal that would exempt transport workers from taxes at the gas pump.

Price increases will take effect on midnight of the day the new regulations are published in Costa Rica’s legal bulletin, La Gaceta, explained Aresep officials. After a regulation is sent by a government agency for publication in La Gaceta, it takes three to four days for it to be published and then take effect.

Meanwhile, in Miami, The Herald yesterday reported an almost 2 cent drop in local gas prices, attributing that to the recent decision by Britain to leave the European Union.

The daily quoted Gregg Laskowski, a senior petroleum analyst for GasBuddy.com who said, “‘Brexit’s impact — strengthening the U.S. dollar, weakening European currencies and weakening global crude oil prices — is expected to add even more downward pressure to summer gas prices.’”

Maybe the drop in crude will bring about a decrease here in the near future.

In the meantime, I’ll see you at the pump!